Comment by comex

This is a good explanation of how the defense totally screwed up:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/op-ed-ross-ulbric...

Basically, the evidence was massively damning, so their only serious hope of winning was by challenging the curiously nonspecific way the FBI found the Silk Road server; but they gave up their ability to do so for some dubious benefits.